Parker Solar Probe: Humanity’s Closest Encounter with the Sun

Controllers have confirmed NASA’s mission to “touch” the Sun survived its record-breaking closest approach to the solar surface on Dec. 24, 2024.

Breaking its previous record by flying just 3.8 million miles above the surface of the Sun, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe hurtled through the solar atmosphere at a blazing 430,000 miles per hour — faster than any human-made object has ever moved. A beacon tone received in the late evening hours of Dec. 26 confirmed the spacecraft had made it through the encounter safely and is operating normally.

This pass, the first of more to come at this distance, allows the spacecraft to conduct unrivaled scientific measurements with the potential to change our understanding of the Sun.

Read more: https://science.nasa.gov/science-rese...

Music credits: “Altitude” by Thomas Daniel Bellingham [PRS]; “Our Velocity Vibrant” by Jeremy Noel William Abbott [PRS]; “Omega Centauri” by Timothy James Cornick [PRS]; “Earthrise” by Alasdair Neil Parkinson [ASCA]; “The Big Revelation” by Richard James Neale [PRS], Jason Glover [PRS]; “Snuggling You” by Daniel Backes [GEMA], Peter Moslener [GEMA] from Universal Production Music.

Video Credit: NASA
Editors: Joy Ng (eMITS), Beth Anthony (eMITS)
Lead Heat Shield Engineer: Betsy Congdon (Johns Hopkins APL)
Associate Administrator: Nicola Fox (NASA)
Mission Designer: Yanping Guo (Johns Hopkins APL)
Heliophysicist: Kelly Korreck (NASA)
Lead Producer: Joy Ng (eMITS)
Project Scientist: Nour Rawafi (Johns Hopkins APL)
Heliophysics Division Director: Joseph Westlake (NASA)
Mission Systems Engineer: John Wirzburger (Johns Hopkins APL)
Videographers: Lacey Young, Beth Anthony, Joy Ng (eMITS)

This video can be freely shared and downloaded at https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14741 While the video in its entirety can be shared without permission, the music and some individual imagery may have been obtained through permission and may not be excised or remixed in other products. Specific details on such imagery may be found here: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14741

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